joejoe.org Frontpage News

Office 2011 BETA 4

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:03:59 +0000

Today I got my hands on Microsoft Office 2011 for mac, which is currently in BETA. I managed to take a few screenshots off whats new. I must say I am quite impressed with it already.
One of the biggest things you will notice is entourage is now completely gone and replaced by outlook. Microsoft messenger now sports a new interface too which was very much needed in my opinion. But anyways less of the gibbering and more of the goodies:

Activation:

Communicator:

Remote Desktop:

Excel:

I took quite a few screen shots, if you want to see more including outlook, Microsoft messenger and more you'll need to download them from here

For icons and other resources click here

Lee.

Apples Response to iPhone 4 Signal problem.

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:41:49 +0000

Dear iPhone 4 Users,

The iPhone 4 has been the most successful product launch in Apple�s history. It has been judged by reviewers around the world to be the best smartphone ever, and users have told us that they love it. So we were surprised when we read reports of reception problems, and we immediately began investigating them. Here is what we have learned.

To start with, gripping almost any mobile phone in certain ways will reduce its reception by 1 or more bars. This is true of iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, as well as many Droid, Nokia and RIM phones. But some users have reported that iPhone 4 can drop 4 or 5 bars when tightly held in a way which covers the black strip in the lower left corner of the metal band. This is a far bigger drop than normal, and as a result some have accused the iPhone 4 of having a faulty antenna design.

At the same time, we continue to read articles and receive hundreds of emails from users saying that iPhone 4 reception is better than the iPhone 3GS. They are delighted. This matches our own experience and testing. What can explain all of this?

We have discovered the cause of this dramatic drop in bars, and it is both simple and surprising.

Upon investigation, we were stunned to find that the formula we use to calculate how many bars of signal strength to display is totally wrong. Our formula, in many instances, mistakenly displays 2 more bars than it should for a given signal strength. For example, we sometimes display 4 bars when we should be displaying as few as 2 bars. Users observing a drop of several bars when they grip their iPhone in a certain way are most likely in an area with very weak signal strength, but they don�t know it because we are erroneously displaying 4 or 5 bars. Their big drop in bars is because their high bars were never real in the first place.

To fix this, we are adopting AT&T�s recently recommended formula for calculating how many bars to display for a given signal strength. The real signal strength remains the same, but the iPhone�s bars will report it far more accurately, providing users a much better indication of the reception they will get in a given area. We are also making bars 1, 2 and 3 a bit taller so they will be easier to see.

We will issue a free software update within a few weeks that incorporates the corrected formula. Since this mistake has been present since the original iPhone, this software update will also be available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G.

We have gone back to our labs and retested everything, and the results are the same� the iPhone 4�s wireless performance is the best we have ever shipped. For the vast majority of users who have not been troubled by this issue, this software update will only make your bars more accurate. For those who have had concerns, we apologize for any anxiety we may have caused.

As a reminder, if you are not fully satisfied, you can return your undamaged iPhone to any Apple Retail Store or the online Apple Store within 30 days of purchase for a full refund.

We hope you love the iPhone 4 as much as we do.

Thank you for your patience and support.

Apple.

Nintendo 3DS

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 17:50:39 +0000

Nintendo's upcoming console, the 3DS, offers 3D gaming experience without the need of special glasses.
(those of you who have seen a 3D movie lately, know how much of an improvement this is)

The 3DS comes with a 3.5-inch 3D screen and a 3-inch touch screen below the 3D screen.
This handheld gaming device comes with a slider on the side of the console just to control the 3D effect on the games played.
It can also change the 3D effect to 2D. Moreover the 3DS will be backwards-compatible & feature an integrated 3D-camera.

Interesting is also that Nintendo has teamed up with film studios, such as Disney and Warner Brothers, to offer 3D movies for the 3DS.

The 3DS looks quite promising. Definitely something to keep an eye on.

Source: AllReviewsOnline.com

iPhone 4 Wallpaper Pack.

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:58:15 +0000

Download
Created by: inaise

Spice Up Your Desktop This Month

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 20:26:07 +0000

Here's some of the best of the web so far this month in terms of customization:

Click on the links provided to download.

1] Mac OS X 10.6.x Theme by gafmediastudio
Preview:

2] Wallpaper by dreamerseven

Preview:

3] Windows 7 Theme by Katz93

Preview:

4] World Cup Icon By IconDoctor

Preview:

Evolution of Windows Media Player 12

Mon, 24 May 2010 09:51:35 +0000

I've had the privledge of taking a glimpse into the development of Windows Media Player 12. Gaining access to screenshots of the initial milestones that Windows Media Player 12 has gone to get to what you see today. All though not the most interesting aspect of the development of Windows 7 it is one of the most visual.

Windows 7 Milestone 1 era

Windows Media Player in build 6519 we see the minor changes that define the start of WMP 12's development all though I call this Windows Media Player 11.5 as the changes are so subtle. You see the initial reconfiguration of the tabs to the right side of the screen to make room for a breadcrumb bar for ease of navigation. New button leading to the Now Playing Window and a button that is for favorites but doesn't quite work like that I'm not sure what MS intended for it but it never made it into RTM. We also can preview songs which is useful all you gotta do is right click and click "Preview" and a little window pops up with a play button. The new Now Playing window makes its apperance here as well, still needing a touchup and some nice polish but its Milestone 1 so you get what you get.

I wasn't told what build this was from but we'll call it Post-M1 for now. You get a closer look to what we have now, still looking like Windows Media Player 11 though. You see the media guide moved to the bottom left hand corner, you see aero extended into the tab and breadcrumb area as well. The Now Playing window improved since our last look now giving a bit more use to it. Also a Radio Guide button that was seen in and out throughout various Windows 7 builds but never made it into RTM it doesn't seem to do anything though.

Windows 7 M2 era

Windows Media Player 12 in Windows 7 Milestone 2 is probably the closest you'll get at seeing what WMP12 would look like with glass. Microsoft finally moved in the newer 7 UI into WMP12 showing the new light blue folderband that will be seen all throughout explorer in M3 and RTM oddly it's not seen anywhere else in M2. Aero is still present but it fits in a bit more than before and you can see more fit and polish throughout. The Now Playing window is a bit cleaner than what you saw in Post-M1 but still doesn't resemble the polished look that we see in RTM. �Favorites� button is still present and still without any real function, no thumbnail controles appear, it's just the same taskbar band as ever.

Windows 7 M3 era

This is where you finally get a look at what you finally get when you purchase and install Windows 7. Still features the older Vista control buttons and a background that resembles the aurora used in M3 and Beta 1. Aero is gone with Microsoft citing it confused users or maybe it was just to make the UI more consistent with Windows 7 even though this wasn't done with Windows Picture Viewer.

Windows 7 RTM

This is what you're looking at right now as you read this if you're using Windows 7

Don't ask for files or more screenshots, don't ask for build numbers as I have nothing else to give, don't bother giving me PM's either. Wish I could give you more info on the development of Windows 7 UI wise but there's not much that you haven't seen and whats left isn't exactly interesting or visual at all.

Microsoft Revamps Hotmail to Take on Google

Wed, 19 May 2010 12:38:41 +0000

Microsoft has announceda revamped version of Hotmail and now calls it Windows Live Hotmail. In a press briefing in San Francisco, Chris Jones,
corporate vice president for Microsoft spoke about the changes in the company's mail service. The new Hotmail focuses mostly on the revised Inbox features,
adding/sharing photos and MS Office documents. Is Microsoft taking on Google? We say this as all these features are already present in Gmail.

It was about time that web's one of the most popular free mail service Hotmail got a well-deserved revamp.
New Windows Live Hotmail does carry the same social networking interface on the landing page. Once you go to the Inbox,
you'll be offered options to manage the clutter. For instance, the new Sweep feature that helps you get rid of the mails that you don't want anymore.
These mails could be newsletters, or website offers which you have signed up for sometime in the past but don't want to receive now.
Such mails can be directly moved to other folder or Trash cab. This is pretty much similar to the Gmail filters option.

New Hotmail also offers automatically sweeping the mails from the Inbox. In case you've added your Gmail and Yahoo Mail Inboxes,
then they can be swept too. Apart from that, the new Hotmail will allow auto-preview of photos without leaving the Inbox.
It also offers a preview of photos from third party services like Flickr and SmugMug. Alternatively,
it gives users an option to upload photos and share them through Microsoft' cloud-based SkyDrive.
Thus, users just have to email a link instead of sending a bunch of photos.

Even videos from third party services like Hulu and YouTube can be watched without leaving Hotmail. For the mobile devices,
Microsoft will allow pushing Windows Live e-mail, contacts and calendar onto cell phones using Exchange ActiveSync. However,
for using Hotmail and corporate Exchange account, users will have to use a smartphone that supports dual ActiveSync connections.

Hotmail will also allow viewing, editing and sharing Microsoft Office documents even if the Office suite isn't installed in the system.
So naturally, Hotmail will take help of MS Office Web's editing tools.

Hotmail users will also get a number of separate views for watching social network updates, shipping information, email from other inboxes and so on.

The most important update is that Microsoft will now offer an option to use an encrypted HTTPS secured connection.
We believe this option should be set as default just like Gmail did after it saw a cyber attack originating from China.

Microsoft will also offer an option to add multiple aliases to a single account and update a mail account with a new name.
Both these features are currently under the testing phase and would be made available sometime later.

New and revamped Windows Live Hotmail will be rolled out to users in the coming week.

Apple iPad UK delivery delayed again

Wed, 19 May 2010 09:35:28 +0000

Apple has told wannabe iPad owners who haven't yet placed a pre-order that they won't receive their iPads until 7th June at the earliest.

Apple had previously advertised the delivery date for pre-orders as 28th May - the day the UK version of the iPad is due to launch.

This date has now changed on the Apple website, so if you place a pre-order now you'll have to wait even longer to get your hands on arguably the most hyped tech device of all time.

Huge US demand for iPad

It's believed that the delay in shipping new pre-orders of the iPad is down to continued huge demand for the iPad. Apple was originally due to launch its iPad in the UK in late April but had to push back this date due to an unexpected volume of orders from US customers.

If you've missed your opportunity to pre-order in time for launch date, all may not be lost if you're prepared to face huge queues - it's expected that Apple will keep a few first-launch iPads in reserve to sell direct in Apple stores on 28th May.
Apple iPad price plans

The wi-fi only version of the iPad will cost from �429 when it goes on sale in the UK - for a wi-fi plus 3G iPad you'll have to pay at least �100 more.

Mobile networks O2, Orange and Vodafone have all released detailsof their iPad 3G price plans, with prices starting from �2 for a single day's access to the 3G mobile broadband network.

Industry experts expect 2010 to be the year of the tablet, with between 50 and 100 rivals to the iPad expected to launch this year, including the mysteriously named JooJoo.
Source: Which?

MacBook Pro 15" - boot camp ic

Fri, 07 May 2010 13:33:06 +0000

Artist's Comments
------
PLEASE COMMENT/FAV IF YOU LIKE/DOWNLOAD IT!
------

I never really found a good icon for my boot camp partition (with Windows 7) and with the release of my MacBook Pro icon ([link]) I thought it would be a nice addition to also make a Windows version.

You can view the icon on my desktop together with my MacBook icon here: [link] .

Included in the .zip file:

• iContainer.

• ICNS, ICO and icon formats.

• PNG: 512px, 256px, 128px, 64px, 32px and 16px.

Download

[VS] Snow Leopard for Win7

Wed, 05 May 2010 09:24:47 +0000

Download & Info

Virgin Media Delivers 200m On Demand Streams In Q1

Tue, 04 May 2010 20:22:04 +0000

Digital TV provider Virgin Media has revealed its on-demand service recorded 200 million views in the first three months of 2010.

Bundle provider Virgin Media has revealed that its on-demand digital TV service recorded 200 million views in the first quarter of this year.

The company, which also offers fibre optic cable broadband and home phone services, has revealed over 2.1 million subscribers now regularly access the service, which includes content from the BBC, ITV, Living and Virgin 1.

Channel 4's 4oD service experienced its best-ever month during March, with nearly eight million views notched up thanks to shows including Glee and Skins.

Cindy Rose, executive director of digital entertainment at Virgin Media, said: "Watching TV on demand is now part of the nation's daily viewing habits, with millions of people tuning into the TV programmes they love when they want to watch them."

She added that the company plans to continue to develop innovative services in relation to high definition and online TV.

Virgin Media recently launched its new online movie service, which includes hundreds of titles such as District 9 and Fantastic Mr Fox.

Source: Cable

Adobe confirms plans to move away from Apple

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:06:02 +0000

Adobe has posted a short response to the letter Apple boss Steve Jobs has written about Flash technology.

In it, Adobe said the legal terms Apple imposed on software developers had led it to shift its focus away from Apple.

Mr Jobs used the open letter to defend Apple's decision not to allow Flash on many of the firm's products.

In it he criticised Flash, saying it was not fit for an era of smartphones and touchscreen devices.
Critical stance

Kevin Lynch, Adobe's chief technology officer, wrote in a blog posting:
"We feel confident that were Apple and Adobe to work together as we are with a number of other partners, we could provide a terrific experience with Flash on the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch."

Currently, none of these products can run the Flash technology which is used on many websites to power media players, games and other animations.

However, added Mr Lynch, Adobe has decided to shift its focus to get Flash working well on gadgets made by Google, RIM, Palm, Microsoft, Nokia and others.

He said Adobe expected to release Flash Player 10.1 on Google's Android operating system in May and then for it to be on general release in June.

"From that point on," he wrote, "an ever increasing number and variety of powerful, Flash-enabled devices will be arriving which we hope will provide a great landscape of choice."

The letter came soon after Adobe announced it would stop making tools that allow developers to quickly translate Flash code to run on Apple gadgets.

These allowed developers to make applications once and then distribute them for use on various phones and operating systems, including Apple's iPhone.

Adobe's announcement followed a change to the terms and conditions of the licence that software developers must sign when writing code to run on Apple products.

That change banned developers from using automatic translation tools, effectively forcing them to develop two applications - one for Apple products and one for everything else.
Hypocrisy

Other Adobe executives have commented on Mr Jobs' letter.

Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen told the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that "when you resort to licensing language" to restrict development, it has "nothing to do with technology".

He said it was now "cumbersome" for developers who were forced to have "two workflows".

Mr Narayen said the problems highlighted by Mr Jobs were "a smokescreen".

He added that if Flash crashed Apple products it was something "to do with the Apple operating system".

He said he found it "amusing" that Mr Jobs thought that Flash was a closed platform.

"We have different views of the world," Mr Narayan told the Wall Street Journal. "Our view of the world is multi-platform."
Crashing Macs

In his lengthy open letter titled Thoughts on Flash, Mr Jobs said the reason Apple did not want people to use Adobe's automatic translation tools was because experience had shown it results in "sub-standard apps".

He described Flash as a closed system and said that it was bad for the smartphone era because it did not support multi-touch systems and helped drain battery power unnecessarily.

He also pointed out that there were now alternatives to Flash technology, particularly for web video.

The Apple boss added that Flash fell short on security and was "the number one reason Macs crash".

The letter provoked an avalanche of comments online, with many saying Apple's restrictions on what can be done with its software go far beyond those on Flash.

In an editorial on OS News, Tom Holwerda said Mr Jobs' letter was "hypocritical" because Apple was guilty of many of the faults it levelled at Adobe.

Source: BBC News

Birdie Adium Dock Icons

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 08:40:24 +0000

Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Artist's Comments
Due to popular request, here is Adium dock icon pack, based on my Birdies icon pack.
7 States, 2 of them animated, with plist file.

Shouts to ~2ndspookster for helping me with animations and creating plist file!

Hope you like them.

Download: Clicky

Mail Icons

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 07:08:30 +0000

Artist's Comments
Mail Icon Include:
*GMail
*Microsoft Outlook
*Windows Mail
*Yahoo! Mail
*UPDATE: Mobile.Me Icon (Mac Version Here)

And an general mail icon.

Icon (only windows) + PNG + PSD Template

You are free to use for anything you want...
Download: thiago-silva@DevART

Visual Studio Launch Live

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:24:34 +0000

Visual Studio Launch Live - Click Here

iPhone 4.0 New feature for the camera app

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:36:46 +0000

Zoom

Rotate Phone

Source: In House

iPhone 4.0 Spell checker

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 20:00:10 +0000

Source: In House

iPhone 4.0 Faces and places in photo app

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:51:57 +0000

Sorry about the image but after you select it the app crashes and the button disappears.

Source: In House

iPhone 4.0 brings notes syncing to mobile me

Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:25:17 +0000

iPhone 4.0 will bring mobile me notes syncing...

iPhone 4.0 event coming April 8

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 17:09:59 +0000

Source: engadget

MS Sending out IE9 Invites

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:38:45 +0000

Now, four days after the release of the very limited sneak peak on Microsoft's next generation Browser, some IE8 Testers have got an invite to join the IE9 beta program.

Quote

Greetings from Microsoft Connect & the IE Team!
Your participation in the IE8 Tech Beta program resulted in 1 or more of your bugs being resolved as Fixed for IE8. Thanks for helping make IE8 great! Because of your active participation in the IE8 Tech Beta, we are excited to invite you to participate in the Internet Explorer Tech Feedback Program program on Microsoft Connect.
Since you are already registered on Microsoft Connect, make sure to sign in with your existing registered Windows Live ID account to use this invitation.
Accept the Invitation

Sincerely,
Justin Saint Clair
Program Manager, Internet Explorer

It is said, there will be a proper beta in mid may. By then, there also should be Windows Live Wave 4.

Source: in House

Why XP Just Can't Die

Tue, 23 Mar 2010 05:15:36 +0000

Windows XP may see at least 3 to 4 more years of use across business and the educational sector. Why? Three words, cost, cost, cost, due to the long development period of Windows Vista many businesses and schools skipped their upgrade phase and no longer have the funds or time to upgrade. During the release of Windows Vista the many negative reviews of it have convinced I.T to simply skip the upgrade to avoid troubles migrating their systems. Some simply don’t understand the time and money it takes to upgrade to a new OS after you’ve had over 7 years of use on the current OS you have so many different configurations and applications developed for use on Windows XP it just isn’t feasible to upgrade to the latest and greatest. Even today you still got some businesses and schools using PC’s running Windows 98 and Windows 2000.

Cost isn’t the whole thing, you have hardware that costs over $1000 to worry about such as expensive laser printers and maybe educational software that has to be proven compatible or you’re in for some serious troubles. With the recent release of Windows XP Mode for Windows 7 Professional and above you may think it’s easier to ensure compatibility towards applications that will not work on Windows 7. But with the big confusion with hardware virtualization it probably scared a lot of businesses and schools away from using this software even after Microsoft has lifted this restriction off.

Visual aspects such as Aero and the updated taskbar are nice but only lend to confuse older users who are used to knowing where exactly their applications are and how they can access certain settings. Another worrying aspect I can think of is custom applications designed to run on certain configurations that software companies were hired to develop and may not even be in business anymore, this also serves for hardware that works on XP and may not be supported anymore.

Other aspects are training employee’s to learn newer and updated features of the new OS. Going almost 10 years with the same OS then moving to a newer OS is complicated and time consuming. Now this will eventually happen but it will happen very slowly and won’t be very ambitious at all. Now if you’re hoping to go to work or school tomorrow and see Windows 7 displayed across your monitor then you’re probably dreaming.

From the desk of the Editor

Calm

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:25:35 +0000

Clicky to download
Artist's Comments
Just a simple low-stress wallpaper.

Aspect:
16:10
Resolution: 2560x1600.

*Sample Apple Cinema display image created with vector resource provided by ~andre-senna.

Windows 7 Ultimate HD Wallpaper

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:26:49 +0000

Preview

Download
Resolution: 2560 x 1600
Author: darpan-aero

[PNG] Internet

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:20:19 +0000

Authour: Mythique-Design
Download: Clicky